CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR – Review – NON-SPOILER

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The third ‘Captain America’ film, ‘Civil War’ was to put it simply, just absolutely incredible. The Russo Brothers have hit it out of the park once again following ‘Winter Soldier’, nailing almost every single aspect of the film including the action, the plot, the characters and the humour, it is once again the whole package. Before the film’s release, they described Winter Soldier as a Political thriller, and stated that this film is more in the vein of a psychological thriller, and man that is exactly what is was. The way this film looked at the conflict between the characters as more than just superheroes kicking and punching each other, gave this film a tone unlike any other Marvel film. It deals a lot with psychological trauma, tragedy, death and consequences, and how all of those themes affect the mind-sets of our heroes. And that does a great job at humanising the characters, which hasn’t really been done before in the universe.

FYI, you may think you are smarter than everyone else and think you know exactly how the film is going to play out from start to finish, but i assure you that you do not even know 90% of the events in this film and how they will play out. So much of this film has been shrouded in secrecy and it makes the film so much more enjoyable when the big OMG moments hit and you didn’t see them coming at all. The Captain America vs Iron Man aspect of the film is only really the surface of what this film has to offer in terms of plot, it goes a lot deeper than you think. And as expected, there were a few seperate plot lines that you are asked to keep track of over the course of the film, and the way it was edited to swap between the storylines made all plot-lines very cohesive and easy to follow. And you may think at one or two moments, what a certain storyline has to do with the rest of the film, but before you have a chance to complain they manage to tie everything up with a nice little bow where pretty much everything in the film affected the bigger picture.

Now as always, a Captain America film directed by the Russo Brothers is bound to have some intense action scenes, but once you bring on the directors of John Wick to help film those action scenes all of a sudden expectations go through the roof (if you’ve seen John Wick, you’ll know what i mean). And the action in the end was oh so very amazing. Just the way it was shot with some far wide shots depicting massive epic moments or closer more in your face brutal moments was so goddamn crazy to watch. The choreography too, especially in that gem of a fight at the airport, was so cool it was just great to see them match their powers and go toe to toe with each other. And i gotta say, this film most definitely has the best and the most exciting action scene/sequence in any Marvel/Superhero film ever, hands down, so be ready to have your mind blown. And you know from the outset that they aren’t really trying to kill each other as vision would decimate everyone in a second, but that doesn’t mean the fights aren’t brutal as hell.

There are multiple times in the film where you can tell that they’re not holding back, and it just upped the intensity of the scenes immensely. But where there are your more serious gritty fights, you still have your large scale royal rumble showdowns that incorporate a perfect amount of cool shots, clever humour and little quips here and there that really suck you into the scene. And everyone does share the humour around, but a certain web slinging someone does bring a lot to the table. Really though, these fight scenes were just so goddamn entertaining that i had the stupidest smile on my face during them and you’ll enjoy them too.

And now, you cannot talk about this film without having to address the thing a number of people were either concerned about of just unnecessarily pissed off about. And that is the comments sooking about: “too many characters”, or “this is supposed to be a Captain America film” or “what is this? Avengers 2.5?”. So, for all those people having a nice little sook about something they are assuming about the film based on nothing other than the amount of heroes in it, here’s what i have to say to you: This IS first and foremost a Captain America movie, not Avengers 3, and the Russo Brothers did a fantastic job at handling the number of characters in a way that gives everyone a suitable amount of screen-time. And despite some characters not being in the film as much, not a single character felt forced in there ‘just because’. The way all the characters were introduced felt very natural and they played a role that was as significant as you’d expect that character to play. There was one character though who for me wasn’t used right in the film, they did make a direct impact on the plot but i wasn’t overly satisfied with how it was handled. I won’t say anything due to spoilers but i guarantee you that 80% of people leaving the theatre won’t be able to tell you who they are because they either didn’t know or completely forget they were even in the film. Just something minor.

And finally, fucking Spider-Man is in this movie, and all i will say about him is that Tom Holland is hands down the best, and by far the most entertaining Spider-Man we have seen on the big screen. And even though we haven’t seen him in his own film yet i am still confident in telling Tobey Maguire to move over as my favourite Spider-Man. So in the end, this is a Marvel film, you should know basically what you are going to get from this film but being a psychological thriller it does differentiate itself from the other superhero films in the universe.

And remember, there are TWO after credits scenes once again, so don’t be the person who leaves early as everyone stares at you wondering why?